A new beginning...

I have so, so much to share with you all, that I don't even know where to begin!  Friday brought a bunch of awesome surprises, Saturday at Junk Jubilee left me me broke, and Sunday...  Well, I'll tell you about Sunday.  I'll save the rest for tomorrow and Wednesday.  

First of all, I have to thank each and every one of you for your kind and uplifting comments that you left on my blog on Friday.  I simply just haven't had a chance to respond to you all, but I will definitely be sitting down and responding to each of you personally.

I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart.  

You all touched me in a way you wouldn't even believe.  :)

Secondly...  My husband.   The unwavering support and belief Scott has shown in me and my dreams the last few days has had my eyes welling up with tears a few times (Sssshhh! Don't tell him.  LOL) and utterly speechless a lot.

Especially this...

This is soon to be the new home of Prairie Patina by Our Prairie Home.  

We've had lots of ideas for this little space over the last couple of years:  Storing equipment.  Storing firewood.  Turning it into a wrestling/weight room for the boys.  In fact, we were pretty firm on that last idea up until last week...   

Scott asked me while watching me wax the china cabinet, 

"If I turned the barn into a workshop for you, would you use it?"  

No hesitation:  "YES!"

However, we had a huge hurdle.  The mess we had let accumulate inside for the last five years.  Like, HUGE mess.  GINOURMOUS mess.  TITANIC mess.  

Now, don't judge:

Pretty much every single thing that we've ever thought we should save while redoing parts of the house was just thrown in here... Along with lots of other junk.  Tons of it.  You couldn't even walk in it without taking the risk of stepping on a rusty nail and winning a quick trip to the doctor for a tetanus shot.  

Its our stash spot.  

And the other end still had straw, chicken poop, goat poop, chicken wire, and nesting boxes from the chickens and goat we had a few years ago.  I just groaned and stared when we went outside yesterday morning to look at it.  

I try to forget the mess exists.  LOL

Scott had already done quite a bit of work to it before we let it go to heck in a hand basket - raised the ceiling, which he had to stoop to fit under (People back in the day must have been SHORT) and putting plywood along half of the north wall.  Its been wired for electricity, has plumbing for running water, and we also ran heat to it from our boiler system.  Its been re-roofed; new plywood and new shingles to match our house.  So, we have an awesome set up.  

Personally, I think this was the Lord's plan for it all along, as if all the small decisions we made for it up to this point were working toward His bigger plan for our future.  The more I think about it, the more in awe I am of His awesomeness.

Don't you just love it when He does things like that????  

Like when Scott decided to pour a concrete pad, put this roll up door in, and widen the entry... 

Perfect for moving in large pieces of furniture.

So, long story short we worked like crazy yesterday.  

EIGHT.  HOURS.  

And this is what it looks like this morning:

We sorted out all the stuff from the kitchen and barn remodel 

that was worth keeping:

Sorted through all the lumber and wood 

that had been stashed in there over the last hundred years 

and kept the ones that showed potential.

Although where we're going to put it, I have no idea, since Scott has some huge plans for me and my space.

He never ceases to amaze me.

I was tickled to death with just the idea of having a large working space.  He's making it into a complete studio.  Yesterday, he comes rolling in with this, when I thought he had gone up to the house for a really long break:

His idea?  

Galvanized metal roofing for the ceiling with barn wood trim and a sheetrocked and painted staging wall complete with replacing the west doorway with a floor to ceiling window.  

He put up a few pieces to I could get an idea of what it would look like.  He was so worried that the metal had started to oxidized and rust in some places. 

I was like, "Its called patina and I LOVE it!"  

There will be barn wood trim at the point where it begins to angle down and then the sides will be sheet rocked.

Knock me over with a feather.

He's re-siding it.  Has already lined up someone to come in and blow in insulation into the walls and ceiling.  AND will be installing an air conditioning window unit.  I had to stop him when he mentioned pouring a new concrete floor.  "Scott," I told him, "I'm going to be painting in here.  I don't want to be worrying about getting paint on the floor."  LOL  He did, however, talk me into a barnwood floor in the staging section.  Just thinking about it, I am LOLing.  ;)

Today along with finishing putting up the metal, this is our job:

Installing the rest of the plywood walls inside and out, so its ready for insulation tomorrow.  My carpal tunnel is still flaring up from yesterday, so I hope I can be a decent helper.  Data Entry was a bad job to take when I was twenty.  :P

But I'm so excited, I don't care.  Although I may have to "borrow" some pain meds from my mother-in-law.  Last night it had me in tears.  Y'all must think I cry an awful lot.  I really don't.  Promise. HA HA HA

In the end, my new space is going to be absolutely wonderful and I can't wait to get started working in it.

 

Especially with all the stuff Scott bought me at an auction Friday night...  But I'll tell you about that tomorrow.  

Stay tuned because you are not going to believe all the pieces he picked up for me.  :)

XO,